“In March 2006, Peter Quinn (former Massachusetts chief
information officer (CIO), made comments about clothing that set
off a bizarre firestorm of news and discussion. His comments were
noted in ZDNet Australia’s article, ‘Sandals and ponytail set cramp
Linux,’ CNET’s article ‘Sandal and ponytail set’ cramping Linux
adoption?, and many others. There were even articles in Linux
Weekly News (LWN) and Slashdot.“What did Quinn say? He simply stated that the appearance of
many free-libre/open source software (FLOSS) developers detracts
from FLOSS adoption. ‘Open source has an unprofessional appearance,
and the community needs to be more business savvy in order to start
to make inroads in areas traditionally dominated by [proprietary]
software vendors. [Having] a face on a project or agenda makes it
attractive for politicians [to consider open source].’“Guess what? He’s right…”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.
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